The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices.

Download Prohibited Personnel Practices (PPP) Complaint Form (OSC-11). This form can also be used to
complain retaliation for whistleblowing.
The following practices are prohibited by the federal government agencies under the Prohibited
Personnel Practices (PPP) Act:

(1) discriminate against an employee or applicant based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin,
age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation;

Although OSC is authorized to investigate discrimination based upon race, color, religion, sex, national
origin, age, or handicapping condition, as well as reprisal for filing an EEO complaint, OSC generally defers
such allegations to agency procedures established under regulations issued by the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 5 C.F.R. § 1810.1. (This deferral policy does not apply to discrimination
claims outside the jurisdiction of the EEOC, such as complaints alleging discrimination based upon marital
status or political affiliation.) (See http://www.osc.gov/ppp.htm#q10.)

Filing a complaint with OSC will not relieve you of the obligation to file a complaint with the agency’s EEO office within the time prescribed by EEOC regulations (at 29 C.F.R. Part 1614).
(2) solicit or consider employment recommendations based on factors other than personal knowledge
or records of job-related abilities or characteristics;

(3) coerce the political activity of any person;

(4) deceive or willfully obstruct anyone from competing for employment;

(5) influence anyone to withdraw from competition for any position so as to improve or injure the
employment prospects of any other person;

(6) give an unauthorized preference or advantage to anyone so as to improve or injure the employment
prospects of any particular employee or applicant;

(7) engage in nepotism (i.e., hire, promote, or advocate the hiring or promotion of relatives);

(8) engage in reprisal for whistleblowing – i.e., take, fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take a
personnel action with respect to any employee or applicant because of any disclosure of information by
the employee or applicant that he or she reasonably believes evidences a violation of a law, rule or
regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and
specific danger to public health or safety (if such disclosure is not barred by law and such information is
not specifically required by Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or the
conduct of foreign affairs – if so restricted by law or Executive Order, the disclosure is only protected if
made to the Special Counsel, the Inspector General, or comparable agency official);

In order to allege retaliation arising from whistleblowing, you must first blow the whistle–that is, you must
make the “disclosure” of agency’s wrongful acts. See more on whistleblowing.

(9) take, fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take a personnel action against an employee or
applicant for exercising an appeal, complaint, or grievance right; testifying for or assisting another in
exercising such a right; cooperating with or disclosing information to the Special Counsel or to an
Inspector General; or refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law;

(10) discriminate based on personal conduct which is not adverse to the on-the-job performance of an
employee, applicant, or others; or

(11) take or fail to take, recommend, or approve a personnel action if taking or failing to take such an
action would violate a veterans’ preference requirement; and

(12) take or fail to take a personnel action, if taking or failing to take action would violate any law, rule or
regulation implementing or directly concerning merit system principles at 5 U.S.C. § 2301.

OSC receives, investigates, and prosecutes allegations of PPPs, with an emphasis on protecting federal government
whistleblowers. OSC seeks corrective action remedies (such as back pay and reinstatement), by negotiation or from
the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), for injuries suffered by whistleblowers and other complainants. OSC is
also authorized to file complaints at the MSPB to seek disciplinary action against individuals who commit PPPs.

All statements contained in this page are subject to change and update. EEO 21 does not take responsibility for any
errors or misrepresentation contained therein.

Prohibited Personnel Practices (5 USC § 2302(b))

Any employee who has authority to take, direct others to take, recommend, or approve any personnel action, shall not, with respect to such authority—

discriminate for or against any employee or applicant for employment—

A. on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, as prohibited under section 717 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e–16);

B. on the basis of age, as prohibited under sections 12 and 15 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (29 U.S.C. 631, 633a);

C. on the basis of sex, as prohibited under section 6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206 (d));

D. on the basis of handicapping condition, as prohibited under section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 791); or

E. on the basis of marital status or political affiliation, as prohibited under any law, rule, or regulation;

solicit or consider any recommendation or statement, oral or written, with respect to any individual who requests or is under consideration for any personnel action unless such recommendation or statement is based on the personal knowledge or records of the person furnishing it and consists of—

. an evaluation of the work performance, ability, aptitude, or general qualifications of such individual; or

A. an evaluation of the character, loyalty, or suitability of such individual;

coerce the political activity of any person (including the providing of any political contribution or service), or take any action against any employee or applicant for employment as a reprisal for the refusal of any person to engage in such political activity;

deceive or willfully obstruct any person with respect to such person’s right to compete for employment;

influence any person to withdraw from competition for any position for the purpose of improving or injuring the prospects of any other person for employment;

grant any preference or advantage not authorized by law, rule, or regulation to any employee or applicant for employment (including defining the scope or manner of competition or the requirements for any position) for the purpose of improving or injuring the prospects of any particular person for employment;

appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position any individual who is a relative (as defined in section 3110 (a)(3) of this title) of such employee if such position is in the agency in which such employee is serving as a public official (as defined in section 3110 (a)(2) of this title) or over which such employee exercises jurisdiction or control as such an official;

take or fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take, a personnel action with respect to any employee or applicant for employment because of—

. any disclosure of information by an employee or applicant which the employee or applicant reasonably believes evidences—

i. a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or

ii. gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law and if such information is not specifically required by Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or the conduct of foreign affairs; or

A. any disclosure to the Special Counsel, or to the Inspector General of an agency or another employee designated by the head of the agency to receive such disclosures, of information which the employee or applicant reasonably believes evidences—

. a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or

i. gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety;

take or fail to take, or threaten to take or fail to take, any personnel action against any employee or applicant for employment because of—

. the exercise of any appeal, complaint, or grievance right granted by any law, rule, or regulation;

A. testifying for or otherwise lawfully assisting any individual in the exercise of any right referred to in subparagraph (A);

B. cooperating with or disclosing information to the Inspector General of an agency, or the Special Counsel, in accordance with applicable provisions of law; or

C. for refusing to obey an order that would require the individual to violate a law;

discriminate for or against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee or applicant or the performance of others; except that nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit an agency from taking into account in determining suitability or fitness any conviction of the employee or applicant for any crime under the laws of any State, of the District of Columbia, or of the United States;

. knowingly take, recommend, or approve any personnel action if the taking of such action would violate a veterans’ preference requirement; or

A. knowingly fail to take, recommend, or approve any personnel action if the failure to take such action would violate a veterans’ preference requirement; or

take or fail to take any other personnel action if the taking of or failure to take such action violates any law, rule, or regulation implementing, or directly concerning, the merit system principles contained in section 2301 of this title.

This subsection shall not be construed to authorize the withholding of information from the Congress or the taking of any personnel action against an employee who discloses information to the Congress.

Who remembers the sale and transfer of advanced navy quieting technology to Toshiba? Because of that poorly informed sale this country lost some of our most advanced navy quieting technology. Remember those countries where these most advanced navy technologies ended up? Refresh your memories! This article just came out today, through the United Press International. It is a U.S. News article entitled “Reports of Russian sub in gulf downplayed.” This is what happens when we do not let good men like Mr. Conley and Mr. Kelly do their jobs. This is what happens when the people of this country are complacent and do not support the tireless efforts of patriotic Americans like Mr. Conley and Mr. Kelly.

I ran across this story from August 29, 2011 (in my mail box, sent to me by a reader), which is remarkably like what I am being told is going on in DSS (Defense Security Service).

Note similarities, those of you familiar with the problems DSS seems to be propagating at an alarming rate:

Managers pushing out senior employees who have the knowledge, training and experience to do the job in order to make room for often unprepared, untrained, equally incompetent cronies from another work environment. Cronyism can be hiring relatives, or can be hiring members of a same church, college class, club, or military service branch etc. It does seem like DSS is having more than its share of such problems.

It seems like within DSS, as in this story, some crony seeking managers like people around who can spy on other employees for them, and be loyal to the manager in charge, even if they aren’t capable of doing the job they ostensibly were hired to do. In the case of DSS, how is this helping DSS protect our technology and oversee government contracts? (Answer: It’s not! But it may well be meeting the goals of certain defense contractors who don’t want any oversight anyway.) GFS

See original article: Whistleblowers: DOD official incompetent, wasteful , ‘tyrannical’

Thanks Old Navy Man for sending this. It is a good follow up in one of the continuing stories I had been observing. The Defense Security Service has truly reached the point of no salvation in this whistleblower supporter’s opinion. It just gets worse and worse. I have a lot more I’ve been told or have been able to find out during my family emergency trips back east. I’ll be unrolling more stuff from this point forward. Please do go to this link. I see that POGO’s Nick Schwellenbach included links to the DOD OIG’s report concerning Mr. Conley’s case from 2002-2008, where the DOD OIG validated and upheld Mr. Conley’s concerns and that he has been fiercely retaliated against by DSS managers and it appears the director. Mr. Conley has been on the receiving end of a vendetta for doing his job lawfully and trying to make sure a particular case was not covered up and would be prosecuted. But because of the demonstrated actions of the defense contractor involved (Boeing) and the conflict of interest relationships certain managers in DSS have personally and professionally with Boeing, and as it was discovered later, Boeing’s relationships with other government managers and defense agencies or activities, it has been a brutal uphill battle to assure integrity in the oversight process. Start with reading all of this. I will be publishing more later. GFS

I just stumbled across this link to a very disturbing whistleblower article. I did not see it posted at your site so I am forwarding it to you. Please take the time read it. I hope you will consider posting it with your comments. This recent article is from the Project On Government Oversight. As an old navy man I am incensed that the two government workers identified in this article have been persecuted by the Marine Corps, my Navy and the Defense Security Service for trying to do their jobs. More people need to know what is going on in our government!

I’m back. This seems to be my time for family matters that require me to be away from home. I have not given up. I have heard some more interesting things while away. There seems to be an increasing amount of corruption coming into the light. Some of it is in the news media. Some of it is not yet.

If any of you have something to report or bring public attention to, please let me know. I believe not “going quietly into the good night” is a key to prevailing.

Meta

GFS

This blog is about whistleblowers and the conditions and situations that happen in their lives to create their whistleblower status. This blog is intended to inform, share, and support whistleblowers and those who support them.